I just can't help but feel bad for a new player come WoD. Leveling up through the zones and gaining abilities/ talents was so exciting at one point But with this pruning and everything going on I just don't see it being the case next expansion.

I know it has been changing for some time and it took a big leap with the new talent system (which I have no problem with) BUT IT WILL become a problem if new players/characters are now also gaining a minimum of new abilities during the leveling process.

<-- Take this toon for example; (and please correct me if I'm wrong) At my current level I will be losing Slam/Thunderclap/Battle Shout/Berserker Rage and other situational abilities from my normal rotation.

This will leave me with : Mortal Strike / Overpower / Execute as my rotation at this level?

Well we have no idea what the final pruning will result in for abilities, we also have no idea if they will rework the level when certain abilities are learned, how can we really look at the expansion and say X looks pretty Y?

True enough but they know of peoples concerns with it and they could very easily put out a Tweet or something saying "We know that the journey from lvl1-90 is important too so we will be changing the progression of when you learn certain abilities to help make it a smooth transition"

But they haven't..

Things are still very much under-development but this line in the Warlords Alpha Patch Notes should address one of your specific concerns.

General

The levels at which you learn class abilities have been revised to provide a smoother leveling flow.

Things are still very much under-development but this line in the Warlords Alpha Patch Notes should address one of your specific concerns.

Is there anywhere we can see these changes or has that not been released yet?

For nitty gritty details like levels that spells/abilities are learned at, there are sites like WowHead that catalog changes in game files from build-to-build. However, I will stress that class abilities have not been finalized yet so things you'll see there may not be final.